Milan Fashion Week: Emilio Pucci spring/summer 2011

Emilio Pucci spring/summer 2011 at Milan Fashion Week

BY Hilary Alexander |
26 September 2010

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The hippie trail is becoming a well-trodden path at Milan Fashion Week, as are the references to Yves Saint Laurent's peasant and safari themes. All surfaced in a well-travelled collection by Peter Dundas for Pucci.

Island life, as in Ibiza, or Mykonos, or Goa, was the inspiration for this breezy, gallivanting show, as the models raced round in floor-grazing 'saharienne' dresses, split open in front to reveal spike-heeled, lace-up, over-the-knee, open-toe boots, or stiletto sandals, embellished with turquoise and lapis.

Kylie Minogue was racing, too, dashing a block over cobblestones, in high heels and a gold, off-the-shoulder Pucci mini-dress, to make her front row seat, just in time for the start, after her car became stuck in Milan's "tutto bloccato" traffic.

The prints were inspired by the blues and whites of Greek Cycladic architecture, and many of the fabrics - cottons, silks and liquid jerseys - had been sent to India to be bleached, re-dyed and batik-ed to give a more lived-in, sun-and-sea-drenched appearance.

Suede and python, lace-up tunics were reminiscent of Veruschka wearing YSL in that iconic 1968 Franco Rubartelli shot, while taut, crochet dresses recalled a young Jane Birkin, and black broderie anglaise and eyelet- work flounced dresses to the floor, suggested Brigette Bardot in "Viva Maria".

Woven hippie bags, mirror-worked kaftans and bandanas, and thonged and fringed, hipster jeans and leather vests, all recalled the carefree days of another travelling generation; today's Gap-year gadabouts set no such statements of style.